broehl@wateng.UUCP (Bernie Roehl) (05/13/85)
Yes, I also saw the ST at the show in Toronto, and yes, I was also very
impressed.
Some things not mentioned before:
The machine is cool. Not in the '50s sense (although I think that applies
as well), but in terms of temperature. The power supply is external, and
the package count is low; you can put your hand on the "cooling vents" and
barely feel the warmth. It's also very low-power, and needs no fan (peace
and quiet at last!).
The keyboard feel is not bad; it's a little different than what I'm used
to, but quite acceptable.
I think the guy's observation that they would expand to 4 meg eventually
is interesting; I can see 2 Meg easily enough (just replace the 256k dynamics
with 1 megabit chips), but 4 meg would require 2 meg chips, which won't be
state of the art for a while. I suspect the chips are soldered in (sigh)
so the upgrade will be a replacement of the whole keyboard unit (or at least
the processor board). Still, when the entire system costs less than Apple's
memory upgrade for the Mac, who cares?
By the way, has anyone got any ideas why it's being released in Canada
more than a month before the US release? Has Canada been particularly good
to Atari in the past? Did Jack Tramiel have a thorn pulled out of his foot
by a Canadian when he was but a youth? Or is Canada just one big beta test
site?
Who knows...
--
-Bernie Roehl (University of Waterloo)
...decvax!watmath!wateng!broehlgeorge@mnetor.UUCP (George Hart) (05/14/85)
> By the way, has anyone got any ideas why it's being released in Canada > more than a month before the US release? Has Canada been particularly good > to Atari in the past? Did Jack Tramiel have a thorn pulled out of his foot > by a Canadian when he was but a youth? Or is Canada just one big beta test > site? > Tramiel (as far as I know) IS a Canadian. He started Commodore Computers here in Toronto and ran it for many years (although Commodore is now incorporated somewhere in the Caribbean for tax reasons). By the way, does anybody know if the 520ST can be networked? At that price, it would make quite a workstation. -- Regards, George Hart, Computer X Canada Ltd. {cbosgd, decvax, harpo, ihnp4}!utcs!mnetor!george
henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (05/14/85)
> I think the guy's observation that they would expand to 4 meg eventually > is interesting; I can see 2 Meg easily enough (just replace the 256k dynamics > with 1 megabit chips), but 4 meg would require 2 meg chips, which won't be > state of the art for a while. I suspect the chips are soldered in (sigh) > so the upgrade will be a replacement of the whole keyboard unit (or at least > the processor board). ... It will have to be. The packages for the 1-meg chips will be totally incompatible with the packages for the 256k chips. The 64k->256k transition was unusually easy, because the switch to +5-only power on the 64k left a spare pin for the 256k's extra address line. But the 256k chips have pushed the 16-pin DIP as far as it will go, and the semiconductor companies seem to be talking about total package redesign rather than an attempt to expand to a nearly-compatible 18-pin DIP. -- Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry
ian@utcs.UUCP (Ian F. Darwin) (05/14/85)
In article <587@mnetor.UUCP> george@mnetor.UUCP (George Hart) writes: >> By the way, has anyone got any ideas why it's being released in Canada >> more than a month before the US release? > >Tramiel (as far as I know) IS a Canadian. He started Commodore Computers >here in Toronto and ran it for many years (although Commodore is now >incorporated somewhere in the Caribbean for tax reasons). The theory espoused by a local magazine (was it Computing Canada or Software Canada) is that Canada gets the 520ST first because Apple's penetration of the dealer network is much stronger in the U.S.A. than it is in Canada. Observation confirms this: there are many Commodore dealers here in Toronto; many of them Commodore-only dealers who don't even carry dust covers for anybody else's machines. -- Ian Darwin, Toronto uucp: {ihnp4|decvax}!utcs!ian Envoy-100: I.Darwin Bitnet: ian@utoronto
geoffs@brl-tgr.ARPA (Geoffrey Sauerborn ) (05/15/85)
> By the way, has anyone got any ideas why it's being released in Canada >more than a month before the US release? Has Canada been particularly good >to Atari in the past? Did Jack Tramiel have a thorn pulled out of his foot >by a Canadian when he was but a youth? Or is Canada just one big beta test >site? Wasn't there something about passing FCC REDTAPEgulations? I thought there was some delay there...could be wrong
kushnier@nadc.arpa (07/25/86)
As a perspective 520ST buyer, I was interested in the comments made by Jack
Powell in the new STart Magazine concerning the usefulness of current ST
software. In his article "Practical Software For The Non Developer", Mr.
Powell paints quite a dismal picture of what is out there. I have used a
Macintosh and know the kind of quality software that is available for that
machine. Although everyone talks about the great potential of the 520 and
1040, I cannot help feeling wary about future software development for these
machines. Can someone restore my confidence??
Ron Kushnier
Kushnier@nadc.arpaoyster@uwmacc.UUCP (Vicarious Oyster) (07/30/86)
In article <2552@brl-smoke.ARPA> kushnier@nadc.arpa writes: > >As a perspective 520ST buyer, I was interested in the comments made by Jack >Powell in the new STart Magazine concerning the usefulness of current ST >software. In his article "Practical Software For The Non Developer", Mr. >Powell paints quite a dismal picture of what is out there. I have used a >Macintosh and know the kind of quality software that is available for that >machine. Although everyone talks about the great potential of the 520 and >1040, I cannot help feeling wary about future software development for these >machines. Can someone restore my confidence?? > That depends on what you want and when you want it. If you want (or need) a machine that can immediately be attached to a laser printer and generate reems of good quality text in many fonts, etc., spend the bucks for a Mac. If, on the other hand, you want a machine with a non-proprietary windowing and graphics system which you can use as a hobby machine until such time as the software you want comes out (or if you want to program yourself), get the ST. There are other considerations, of course, such as desire for color, a tube you can read without a magnifying glass, or the fact that an ST (mono) costs only $495, but a good, inexpensive computer that you can't use isn't a good deal. My opinion is that the ST is vastly superior as a programmer's machine. On the other hand, the non-programmer types around here get positively saccharine-sweet when swooning over their Macs ("It's a *cute* little machine!"). Then again, it wasn't their money that put a Mac on their desk (and *I* have the dreaded XT beneath my fingertips right now). As for future availability of ST software, take a look at the back cover of that STart magazine, at what just one company has done and is doing. Batteries Included either has or will have applications which cover most (if not all) of what the non-hobbyist wants a computer for, and almost all of it is available today. Also in STart (as well as in Antic, the parent magazine), you'll find their ST catalog, featuring low-priced software from all over the world (well, at least from the US, Great Britain, and West Germany :-), such as a 3D, object-based, color graphics generation program. And keep in mind that the magazine was published in April, which means that with the standard 3-month lead time, that article was accurate only as recently as January. Public domain titles have already shown great promise, from a GEM-based Kermit, to Bruce Wampler's TVX/Emacs/vi editors, to a great many small but useful utilities which you can hack to your heart's content. Soooooo, was that what you were looking for? -- - Joel Plutchak uucp: {allegra,ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!oyster ARPA: uwvax!uwmacc!oyster@rsch.wisc.edu "E-yoe-oe, e-yoe-oe, e-yoe-oe, e-yoe-oe, e-yoe-oe, e-yoe-oe, e-yoe-oe, e-yoe-oe, e-yoe-oe, e-yoe-oe, e-yoe-oe, e-yoe-oe, e-yoe-oe, e-yoe-oe." - Sting